Bluegrass Mandolin 101
Tuning, holding a pick, and strumming
These online beginner mandolin lessons will help you get started with the basics from holding your mandolin to strumming. Follow a step-by-step process on how to learn the mandolin in the form of mini-lessons. Each mini-lesson includes a video and mandolin tab for you to play with. Go ahead, jump in and have fun!
- 7 Video Lessons
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1
FreeBluegrass Strumming 101
Downstrokes: The Foundation for Strumming Chords
Downstrokes are the foundation for strumming and picking melodies and in this lesson you'll learn how to get started with strumming the mandolin.
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2
FreeBluegrass Strumming 102
Upstrokes
Upstrokes are essentially the opposite of downstrokes. Your hand is starting below the strings and playing up through them.
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3
FreeBluegrass Strumming 103
Combining Down and Upstrokes
Now that you've practiced down and upstrokes, let's put them together to create a basic strumming pattern.
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4
FreeHow to Hold a Flatpick
The Mandolinist's Tool for Volume and Clarity
In this lesson, you'll learn about different types of flatpicks and how to hold one.
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5
FreePicking Arm and Hand Position
The Ideal Position for Strumming and Flatpicking
This lesson will teach you how to position your mandolin so your picking arm and hand will be in the correct position for strumming and flatpicking.
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6
FreeReading Mandolin Tab
Lines and numbers. What do they represent?
Tab is one of the most popular learning tools available. Tunefox features tabs for all of it's songs, licks, and lessons so to prepare you for the rest of the site, let's talk about how to read tab.
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7
FreeHow to Tune Your Mandolin
Learn how to tune your mandolin using an electronic tuner.
First, let's go over the tuning of the mandolin. Although mandolin players will sometimes use many different tunings when playing, the most popular one and the one primarily used for bluegrass musi...